With the launch of Dragonflight, World of Warcraft now has over 1,000 mounts to collect, ride, and flaunt to everyone in your faction’s capital city. While some mounts are standard to the point where it would be rarer for a player not to have one, there are some in the game that are only owned by the elite few. This could be due to the amount of dedication/skill needed to obtain, limited availability, or a mixture of both. Just what are the rarest mounts in World of Warcraft?
The Rarest Mounts in Retail World of Warcraft
Below is a list of the top ten rarest mounts in World of Warcraft. Due to the nature of certain mounts, some have been grouped together to prevent the list from being inequitable, such as mounts tied to the same achievements or titles. The level of rarity is determined by how many players actively own a specific mount, and is based on figures provided by Data for Azeroth.
#10 — Corrupted Hippogryph
In the now-discontinued World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, certain cards found in booster packs came with codes that could be redeemed in-game for exclusive rewards. The Corrupted Hippogryph was included in a rare card of the same name from the Crown of the Heavens expansion. The card, with an unredeemed code, sells for around $800 USD. However, like most other TCG mounts, the Corrupted Hippogryph can still be bought and sold at the auction house.
#9 — Black Proto-Drake
Glory of the Raider achievements require the player to complete a collection of unique achievements tied to a raid, rewarding a mount upon completion. Most Glory achievements stay permanently available and subsequently become easier as the level cap raises with each expansion. The exception to this, however, is the Heroic: Glory of the Raider achievement, which is the first of its kind and was removed at the release of the next WoTLK raid, Ulduar. Players that managed to earn this tricky achievement in the few months it was available were awarded the esteemed Black Proto-Drake. While a lot of Wrath of the Lich King achievements awarded different colored Proto-Drakes, flying on the back of a black one was a true sign of dedication to hardcore raiding.
#8 — Prestigious Bloodforged Courser
The Prestigious Bloodforged Courser is awarded to players that earn Honor Level 500 as a Horde player; a feat that takes several years of grinding Player vs Player content. Due to the sheer amount of time and grinding required for this mount, as well as the mount’s model not being particularly distinct, the Prestigious Bloodforged Courser is currently the rarest mount in the game that is still earnable.
#7 — X-51 Nether-Rocket
The X-51 Nether-Rocket card from the Servants of the Betrayer expansion had an approximate rarity of 1/363 and included a code for two mounts; the X-51 Nether-Rocket itself and its Epic counterpart, X-51 Nether-Rocket EXTREME. The card itself is rarely sold online, however, the code itself sells for around $300-350 USD. Due to the X-51 Nether-Rocket EXTREME being available in the Black Market Container loot pool, the X-51 Nether-Rocket remains much rarer than its Epic version.
#6 — White Riding Camel
Another World of Warcraft Trading Card Game mount, the White Riding Camel is currently the second rarest TCG mount. It was available via the White Camel card from the Tomb of the Forgotten expansion and now sells for an average of $500 USD. Like most other TCG mounts, the White Riding Camel can be bought and sold at the Auction House for a hefty sum of gold.
#5 — Swift Shorestrider
While not the rarest card from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, The Swift Shorestrider remains the rarest TCG mount, likely due to its basic appearance and non-unique model. The Wasteland Tallstrider card from the Throne of Tides expansion sells for around $530 USD; a surprisingly low amount given its rarity. Along with other strider mounts, the model for the Swift Shorestrider received a high-definition update in 2018 with Patch 8.1. Since this mount can still be traded and sold in-game, the Swift Shorestrider is also the rarest mount that is still currently available.
#4 — Crusader’s Black/White Warhorse
The Crusader’s Black/White Warhorse — Black for Horde, White for Alliance — was awarded to players that earned the A Tribute to Immortality Achievement prior to the release of the Cataclysm expansion. This required the player to clear the Trial of the Grand Crusader raid in Heroic 25-man mode without a single player dying once.
If any member of your raid party died a single time, no players would be able to earn the achievement during that attempt of the raid. This, combined with this achievement requiring the highest possible difficulty, made earning the Black or White Warhorse a near-impossible task. While it became slightly easier after the release of Ice Crown Citadel due to better gear being available, many Guilds had already moved on from their attempts and didn’t believe it was worthwhile completing.
#3 — Black Qiraji Battle/War Tank
Prior to Ahn’Qiraj‘s release in vanilla World of Warcraft, one player on each Realm needed to craft the Scepter of the Shifting Sands — an incredibly difficult task only completed by the top guilds on the server — to bang the gong and open the raid for all other players on the server. The player that struck the gong, as well as any other player within 10 hours, received the Scarab Lord title and Black Qiraji Battle Tank, World of Warcraft’s only Legendary mount.
Due to the measly time limit and the sheer difficulty of earning the Scarab Lord title, the Black Qiraji Battle Tank remains one of the rarest mounts in World of Warcraft, and an incredibly rare site to see. In 2018, players with the Scarab Lord title were given another mount, the Black Qiraji War Tank, which was a high-definition remake of the original. This one remains slightly rarer, due to the Scarab Lords who no longer played the game over thirteen years later.
#2 — Gladiator Mounts
Every PvP season in World of Warcraft awards players that reach the Gladiator title with an exclusive mount. To reach Gladiator, the player’s Arena group needs to be in the top 0.5% of the Arena Ladder at the end of the season, with at least 50 games won — an incredibly difficult task.
The Malevolent Gladiator’s Cloud Serpent, awarded in Season 12, is currently tracked as being the rarest, with only 0.0193% of tracked accounts owning one. Every expansion has a specific creature chosen for Gladiator mounts, with an adjective prefixing the title that corresponded to the season it was earned in.
- The Burning Crusade (Seasons 1 – 4) had Swift, Merciless, Vengeful, and Brutal Nether Drake.
- Wrath of the Lich King (Seasons 5 – 8) had Deadly, Furious, Relentless, and Wrathful Gladiator’s Frost Wyrm.
- Cataclysm (Seasons 9 – 11) had Vicious, Ruthless, and Cataclysmic Gladiator’s Twilight Drake.
- Mists of Pandaria (Seasons 12 – 15) had Malevolent, Tyrannical, Grievous, and Prideful Gladiator’s Cloud Serpent.
- Warlords of Draenor (Warlords Seasons 1 – 3) had Primal, Wild, and Warmongering Gladiator’s Fellblood Gronnling.
- Legion (Legion Seasons 1 – 7) had Vindictive, Fearless, Cruel, Ferocious, Fierce, Dominant, and Demonic Gladiator’s Storm Dragon.
- Battle for Azeroth (BfA Seasons 1 – 4) had Dread, Sinister, Notorious, and Corrupted Gladiator’s Proto-Drake.
- Shadowlands (Shadowlands Seasons 1 – 4) had Sinful, Unchained, Cosmic, and Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater.
#1 — Black Ram (and Other Old School Ride Mounts)
The rarest mount in World of Warcraft is the Black Ram, which is currently owned by around 0.0043% of accounts. When World of Warcraft was first released, it was very uncommon for a player to own an epic mount due to the sheer quantity of gold needed to purchase both the mount and the training needed to ride it. While Epic mounts were the fastest available mounts at the time, their models were simple recolors of regular racial mounts.
In Patch 1.4, five months after the release of the game, Blizzard replaced the Epic mounts with fancier versions for every race other than Undead, and offered a free swap for players that owned the originals. Players who refused the swap now own the rarest mounts in the game. Since October 14, 2008, players that own any of the original epic mounts are awarded the Old School Ride Feat of Strength.
The full list of Old School Ride epic mounts includes:
- Black Ram (Dwarf)
- Frost Ram (Dwarf)
- Icy Blue Mechanostrider Mod A (Gnome)
- White Mechanostrider Mod B (Gnome)
- Palomino (Human)
- White Stallion (Human)
- Ancient Frostsaber (Night Elf)
- Nightsaber (Night Elf)
- Arctic Wolf (Orc)
- Red Wolf (Orc)
- Green Kodo (Tauren)
- Teal Kodo (Tauren)
- Ivory Raptor (Troll)
- Mottled Red Raptor (Troll)
World of Warcraft Dragonflight is available for PC via Blizzard’s Battle.net.
